It Doesn't Matter If the Colts Are "For Real" and Other AFC South Must-Reads

Joe Robbins/Getty ImagesWayne leads the NFL in receptions, and his team leads the wild card race.

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Sometimes, the right answer is still wrong.

Today's article of the day comes from the website Sports Skeptic in which the author claims the 2012 Colts are an illusion.

Now, I'm sure the author believes the Colts actually possess corporeal form and are not created by special effects or tricks of light. By illusion, he simply means that the Colts are not a particularly talented team and are unlikely to wield much influence come playoff time.

His arguments are perfectly sound, and it would be foolish to dispute any of them. The Colts have played an easy schedule, they are not sound defensively and have obvious limitations on offense.

As technically correct as the author is, however, he misses one critical fact.

None of that matters.

The Colts are going to make the playoffs.

The problem is that they play in a conference devoid of quality football teams. Losses by the Dolphins and Chargers over the weekend only further the case that Indianapolis is playoff-bound almost by default.

At this rate, the Colts likely only need nine wins, and possibly as few as eight, to earn a postseason berth.

Real or not, the weak schedule that carried the Colts to 6-3 will continue to pit them against beatable teams, in large part because that's all there is in the AFC.

For a young team fully expecting to struggle in their first year, this is an incredible result. Obviously, the playoffs are unlikely to be kind to a flawed Colts team, and if even if they win a game ala the 2010 Seattle Seahawks, no one honestly thinks they will be championship contenders this season.

Are the Colts for real? Existential questions aside, the answer is simple.